By The Sea: Oneshot
by ScarletWaterBender
Summary: I promised somebody a fanfic based on an artwork on DeviantArt, so here it is. this is the URL for the pic, look at it for a better understanding of this fic:     Please Review!


"Rin."

The young woman looked up, attentive to the sound of her name. "Yes, Lord Sesshomaru?" Her voice still held the eagerness of a young girl, but she had grown. She had changed some since the day her dear Lord Sesshomaru had saved her, but he was ever the same. Time had little effect on him anymore.

"Come with me." Sesshomaru, who had turned slightly toward her when calling her name, turned away again, gliding almost noiselessly through the thinning trees. In the light of the full, rising moon, he looked almost ethereal to her, his long white hair flowing almost gracefully down his back.

_Always. I'll always come with you. _Without a word Rin rose from where she had been attempting to build a fire, and walked after him. They didn't need to speak; the silence between them had always held what they'd wanted to say.

"Lord Sesshomaru, wait for me!" A small, greenish imp-looking creature bolted from behind the two-headed, scaled horse A-Un, waving a staff that was twice as tall as he was.

"Jaken." Sesshomaru's voice had a commanding air to it, as it always did.

The imp-man stopped in his tracks, looking up at his master in fear. "Y-yes, L-lord Sesshomaru?"

The demon looked over his shoulder at his little servant. "Watch A-Un."

The imp-man, Jaken, blinked. "Y-yes, Lord Sesshomaru!" He bowed excessively as Sesshomaru turned and walked away, Rin following silently at his heels.

When they were a safe distance from Jaken and their makeshift campsite, Rin spoke. "Lord Sesshomaru?"

The man tilted his head to show that he was listening, a gesture he almost never used on anyone else.

"Where are we going?"

Sesshomaru took a deep breath and exhaled, almost a sigh, but not quite. "You've never seen the ocean, have you, Rin?" he asked quietly.

"Ocean?" The new word tasted strange to her. "No, I don't think so. What's an ocean?"

He gave one small nod, almost in satisfaction. "You'll see." He kept walking.

Eventually the smell hit her; almost bitter, refreshing, completely out of place among the other smells of the forest. The ground, too, showed signs of change: the soil was lighter, finer, drier, like tiny rocks, interspersed with thinning clumps of weeds. The trees were few and far between now, and through them she could see—

She gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. So much water! A million questions surged through her head—why was it all here? How did it _stay_ here? Why was it all moving?

"Rin."

She hadn't realized that she had stopped until Sesshomaru had spoken. She turned to find that he had stopped and was watching her, half-turned away from her still. She gave a small, apologetic bow and hurried after him. He turned and continued at the same pace.

Soon the trees cleared and Rin saw the ocean in all its glory; dark, foam-capped waves stretching out as far as she could see, lapping the sand that stretched for a few miles. The moon seemed unnaturally large and bright in the clear, open air, lighting the waves with an almost celestial glow. She turned toward Sesshomaru with eyes filled with wonder, and stared.

In the moonlight, Sesshomaru seemed to glow. He had stopped for a moment, and his pale white hair gleamed brightly as he stared pensively toward the water, and the markings on his face stood out on his fair skin like drops of blood. His loose clothes billowed softly in the slight breeze, and Rin could have sworn that he looked almost content. To her, he had never been more beautiful.

"Come." Sesshomaru walked forward, Rin following, until he had reached the point where the waves were only a few feet away, and then he stopped. "Sit with me." He gracefully knelt on the shifting sand, facing the ocean.

Rin came up next to him and knelt, attentively facing her master, as she had been taught. Sesshomaru had taught her to sit like a lady, even though she was a peasant, and she was grateful. She could feel the sand shift through her simple pink kimono, and the ends of her forest green obi fluttered slightly in the breeze. She sat patiently, waiting for him to speak.

He turned his head to look at her, and for a moment they simply stared at each other. His gaze was clear, penetrating, and Rin's heart fluttered at his gaze. He had never looked at her for so long. Was something wrong? But then he shifted, and turned so that his knees were nearly touching hers.

"Rin." His voice was softer than usual, and his eyes never left hers. "You've travelled with me a long time. You've grown up."

She nodded, not speaking. If her Lord Sesshomaru wanted to talk, she'd let him talk. She loved the rare treat of listening to his deep, patient voice.

Still he looked at her. "And in all that time, you've seen me do terrible things. I've killed many of your kind. Humans."

"Only the bad ones," she chimed in, before she could stop herself. For a moment she seemed like a child again to him, her high, eager voice like background music to his life. She flushed and looked down, trying to let him speak, embarrassed for interrupting. She heard him shift, and out of the corner of her eye she saw that he had moved one knee closer to her, so that his leg was to her right now. She blushed a little as she felt his hand under her chin, tilting her face to look at him.

His hand was gentle, the fingers callused slightly from wielding a sword, but his skin was soft and warm on hers. She blinked, surprised; her Sesshomaru had never touched her like this before.

Sesshomaru would not look away from her. "Are you afraid of me?" he asked softly. His eyes were sad, but then, they always were filled with a sadness and a knowledge that never ceased to amaze Rin.

She looked amazed even now, and tilted her head only slightly, not wanting the gentle fingers to leave her skin. "You protect me," she said, "Why would I be afraid of you?"

He leaned down then, until their faces were level, for even kneeling, he was so much taller than she. His gaze melted into hers as if willing her to understand something. "I am a bad man," he said simply, "I do bad things. Why do you stay by my side?"

Her breath caught then, and she looked up at him with wide eyes. "I don't want to leave you," she said quietly. "I don't want to be without you."

He blinked slowly then, processing this. Then, ever so gently, he tilted her face slightly farther upward and pressed his mouth to hers. Rin's eyes flew wide, then fell closed. Sesshomaru was so much to her; a father, a brother, a protector, a friend. And now… now he was more. Now he _could_ be more. Her eyes squeezed shut, and a single tear slid down her cheek.

When he pulled away, Rin looked up at him with questions in her eyes.

He looked at her again with that unfathomable look of his, and exhaled softly. "I am a very patient man," he said. "I have waited for you to grow up, so you could fully be by my side." He sighed. "I used to detest mortals. And now look at me."

Rin looked.

He saw the tear track on her cheek then, and wiped it away with his thumb. "You're crying…?" he said quietly.

Rin gave a weak smile. "It's nothing," she said. Hesitantly, she lifted her hand and laid it on his cheek. "You surprised me, that's all."

His lip twitched into the ghost of a smile, and he brought his lips to hers once more.


End file.
